Looking at going there for just a week in late Feb. Did a similar thing to King a few years ago. Loved it. Think King might have been for our 20th wedding ann and this will be our 25th. So, it's just a few days of relaxing with mrs swvic. No surfing or fishing gear. Hire a car and check the walks and beaches is what it will be

Any experience based advice on places to stay, thing to do/avoid would be greatly appreciated

I had to pretend I didn't care when we rolled up at Martha Livinia on King, so tell me about the surf too, please. The thing wth taking a board is that the airline doesn't guarantee it will travel on the same flight. That's fine for going there, but not upon return as it would mean an 8 hr drive to get it. However, I am looking at chartering from our local airport which ain't isn't too dissimilar to the destination airport. If we do that, a board is coming

Last edited by swvic on Tue Jan 27, 2015 9:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

A guy that lived where i live for a while was from there, i believe he is the only local surfer there these days as his mate another surfer died quite a few years back, the guy that still lives theres name is Chris his nick name "Macca", he is a good bloke and a pretty good surfer, he told me all about the place and showed me some pretty nice photos of waves, the island gets waves both on the east and west with the east obviously the most consistent and mostly beachies, while the west has the odd reef but fickle.

Thanks, ID. Looking at a map shows a lot of potential. Like I said, if I go from here I'll take a board

Finding info isn't easy - even the FI website is pretty vague. No mention of money so I'll have to make some calls to find out how much it's gunna cost. KI was not too expensive though. Sure you could get better value for a holiday dollar, but there's something about these remote places that really appeals to us both

We only have 5 days. Getting to Flinders on scheduled flights took a day from that so I looked into chartering. The cost was ridiculous so we are going to Lord Howe. Still not taking a board though. Probably take my own mask and snorkel and perhaps a hand-plane. Read somewhere that you can hire boards so maybe, but it's not a priority

There are plenty of reef breaks at beaches such as Neds. Crowds are non-existent and there are times when you wish you had company out the back as, despite the tourism authorities denying it, there are sharks. I just like to think that the sharks get plenty to eat so won't attack humans.

For board hire, it's just short boards or boogie boards as I saw no mals, just ask around. Many locals just leave their board under trees at the beach - many places operate on an honour system.

Not Flinders, but King Island.
It was an interesting story a couple of years ago when King Island surfing identity Jeremy "Wire'' Curtain died. It was revealed that Kelly Slater and various other luminaries surfed there quite a bit and were great friends with Mr Curtain.

At the tribute after the funeral, there was lots of music as Mr Curtain was also a guitarist and music fan, which included, a version of Keep On Rockin in the Free World played live at the old King Island Butter Factory by his great friends Eddie Vedder and Kelly Slater.

chrisb wrote:I went to Lord Howe in 1998. Plenty of non-surfing things to do.

There are plenty of reef breaks at beaches such as Neds. Crowds are non-existent and there are times when you wish you had company out the back as, despite the tourism authorities denying it, there are sharks. I just like to think that the sharks get plenty to eat so won't attack humans.

For board hire, it's just short boards or boogie boards as I saw no mals, just ask around. Many locals just leave their board under trees at the beach - many places operate on an honour system.

Thanks, mate. Looking forward to it even more now

Years ago we went to the Cocos Islands. Same thing - you could just grab a postie bike or pushy and tell them about it later. Half the time they didn't want any money. Boards, wax, bodyboards and pliers for the urchin spines were all available at the lean-to in front of the surf. It was near the Quarantine Station. While we were there, the Rhinos moved out and the Ostriches moved in

foamy wrote:Not Flinders, but King Island.
It was an interesting story a couple of years ago when King Island surfing identity Jeremy "Wire'' Curtain died. It was revealed that Kelly Slater and various other luminaries surfed there quite a bit and were great friends with Mr Curtain.

At the tribute after the funeral, there was lots of music as Mr Curtain was also a guitarist and music fan, which included, a version of Keep On Rockin in the Free World played live at the old King Island Butter Factory by his great friends Eddie Vedder and Kelly Slater.

Yeah, all the hotel blurbs mention restaurant t'fers. Don't know why, but hadn't even thought of fishing until your post. I'm doing it

It's going to cost a bit. Our accomm is relatively budget at $220 a night. Qantas sent me an offer after I booked flights. Could have had 4 nights for just $6920 if I used their $30 voucher. Some people have too much money

alakaboo wrote:Can you change the days? Looked into it a while ago and it made a huge difference which day you flew/stayed

I could, she can't, but it wasn't obvious on the Qantas website and the place I'm staying only had 2 rates. We're offpeak

steve shearer wrote:"But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you"

Had to look that one up. In the main, it's how we go about it. If it's on, I'll get a board and have a surf, but even mrs swvic doesn't quite realise how many points I rack up by travelling sans surfboard

If you do surf watch yourself at some of the places on the outgoing tide, the 9km long coral lagoon drains hard, the passes can send you half way to NZed with their currents.
Nice surf, took a 8ft board but Qantas baggage whims may prevail.

There is surf on both sides one spot on the airport side Ned's, Middle there is a coral reef slab with lefts and rights but is almost fin draggingly shallow. Blinkies is directly under the landing approach.
'The lagoon passes have some pretty epic Pacific Island type surf there are some other spots on reef corners too but swell direction dependent ! Harry's left, Lovers Bay and Jetties. Have fun